Following the assault he is said to have covered his victim in her own coat and told her to wait 10 minutes before contacting the “boys in blue”.

The woman fled the scene and returned home before her husband discovered her wrapped in a duvet in the couple’s living room, the court heard. Her injuries were so severe that she vomited during a police interview and could not be examined at first.

However, samples were taken from her which would ultimately lead to the conviction of Orozco.

Orozco thought he had got away with it and had started a new life on the other side of the world.

But the brute, previously of Keswick Street, Bensham, Gateshead, was extradited from Hawaii earlier this year after a specialist team executed a warrant at his US home.

Advances in forensic science sparked a cold case review of the rape in 2002.

DNA recovered at the scene was checked against the national DNA database, where a very close similarity was discovered with Orozco’s child.

Scientific conclusions found that “the prospect of anyone other than the defendant having the DNA found at the time of the crime was one in a billion”.

Prosecutor Gavin Doig said: “The defendant had not been on the radar at all until that point.

“They tracked him down to Hawaii and he was extradicted, which he did not contest.”

Orozco admitted having sex with the woman but claims he lived a “promiscuous lifestyle” and that the sex was consensual.

He was convicted of rape, cleared of attempted buggery and jurors were unable to reach a decision on a charge of indecent assault on the same victim.

Because of the lack of a verdict on the indecent assault charge, which was said to have happened at the beginning of the incident, Orozco’s barrister argued the attack may have begun with the woman consenting. But Judge John Milford QC rejected that version of events.

The judge said: “She was grabbed from behind, dragged into a yard and detained there against her will in a state of abject terror.

“During the attack she was slapped by the defendant repeatedly round the head so she did not look at you.

“The impact on her was considerable.”

As well as the nine-year jail term, Orozco must sign the sex offender register for life.

After the case his victim said she hopes it will give hope to other victims of rape.

She said: “I want my case to give hope to other victims of rape. Just because the offender is not caught or prosecuted at the time does not mean you won’t get justice in the future.

“I really want to thank everyone, friends, family, police and victim support. I could not have got through the last 23 years without their ongoing support.”

DCI Nicola Musgrove, from Northumbria Police said: “This was a particularly violent offence of a stranger rape which had a lasting impact not only upon the victim, but was also remembered by the officers who investigated the crime 23 years ago.”